NoobieChickenLady's Journal - SS Score and Mah Kitteh is HOME!! Yay!

[noobiechickenlady]

I've had a time of it trying to get on the forum recently. Finally figured out that the password request I was submitting was going into my junk mail. Sufficient self emails junk??? I don't think so!

Little update from the McHomestead.
Still have the pig, he really, really likes leftovers. Almost as much as DH He's tilled up a portion of his pen, we'll be moving him soon. Still haven't decided what we are going to do with him... Maybe get a female...

Started to get eggs on a semi-regular basis. So far I'm getting a pale turquoise, an olive and several browns at least every other day.

Still have free range bunnies, although one of them did escape into the front yard and ravage my garden. He/she ate all the peas, destroyed the brocoli and kale and devoured my lettuce. I still have some lettuces going in a container by the door, so it wasn't a total loss, but I was really looking forward to the kale. I might be able to do another planting of it, since we will have some warm weather next week, but I'm not sure on that.

The chicks are now almost fully feathered out and we have to modify the tractor to put them outside. It needs to be a little more secure before we put that investment in it

I've almost got Dixie dried off for the winter, I had little desire to go out in the icy weather we get. She'll come into heat in another few weeks and I'll take her to our friends uptown to breed her. Man, she was hollering her fool head off, pacing around! Just about drove DH nuts, every minute or two "MAAAHHHHH!! Mah!!!" Umbra was following her around trying to figure out what was making mama crazy

I'm still trying to get them to sleep in their shed, they want none of it! They go in to eat, to milk Dixie and when it is raining, but they prefer to sleep near the back door.

Woohoo, it feels good to not be incognito anymore

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey baby!

goats = crazy. its the only explanation
;-)

 

[dragonlaurel]

Glad you're back on. They don't always make sense, but it's usually amusing. When the winter weather really hits, they will probably like your shelter a whole lot.

 

[urban dreamer]

Someday I will have a goat to drive me crazy.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

My hope is that everyone in the southern US will become owned by goats, who will then eat the kudzu that is still eating the south.

What's real crazy is these goats, who hate, loathe, despise rainy weather when it is warm, stay out in the rain like it's nothing, even when it got so cold last week, wth is up with that?

Well, it's gonna freeze this Friday, then back to the 70s. We'll see what they do.

Yup, goats = crazy. Totally.

 

[Blackbird]

Hi Tab!

I agree!!! And not just Southern, Northern too! hehe!

Did you get the email reply I sent? Just checked back to make sure you got it!

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Nooooo, I gots no email from you, dear.

I did get the PM about the soaps tho, if that's what you meant?

Darn I have too many ways to get in contact with folks

 

[noobiechickenlady]

No, I was WRONG!

It came in when I was home sick with the swollen tonsils and of course got lost in the clutter of my ginormous inbox. Darn you google. Darn you.

 

[TanksHill]

What's real crazy is these goats, who hate, loathe, despise rainy weather when it is warm, stay out in the rain like it's nothing, even when it got so cold last week, what is up with that?

I hate to admit but I have done this. After a long hot summer theres nothing better than getting soaked by a nice cold rain.

I can relate.

g

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Oh, G I hear you!! This was cold tho. Well, cold for MS

Bacon Bit is still on the grow, eating & snorting & tilling. I'm going to have to get rid of him soon one way or another. Pigs are the only thing I am not allowed to have. And of course I didn't learn this until after I got the darn thing. Apparently it is not covered under the livestock regulations, but under some obscure law. Even though he is a "pet" breed, if I were to be discovered, there would be a $500 fine

The chicks we bought are fully feathered, underwent their time in the new trampoline tractor (Man that was easy, gotta post that when I get pics) and are now integrated with the rest of the flock. The hens are still bossy and will peck the youngsters for no reason, but the roos are really being nice. You know that cluck that roos have when they've found something juicy & want to share. That bobbing up & down thing? They do that for the chicks, how sweet!

DS is the only one still having problems with the roos and he is too afraid to chase them like he should, so he's not going into the backyard alone, ever. Got a nice set of scratches on his leg. Thank goodness the one that attacks him is not the one I want to keep for breeding. THAT sucker will be soup before too much longer.

Still have not bred Dixie or Umbra yet, but getting very close. The truck is now readily available and the folks with the buck are on standby. In their words "Bucky's ALways ready." Just waiting for the hollering to begin again.

I did go back to corn-training Dixie, since we don't have the daily milking interaction. She's gotten Come, Up & Down (onto & off the milkstand). Stay is taking her a little while and I have to have DH or DD's help with that one.

Umbra (Little Dummy, cause seriously, the goat is rather stupid...) is slowly catching on that she can no longer put her hooves on me. I tried not to let her develop the habit of jumping up, but it was easy to push her off when she was tiny. Now, not so much. But she is very eager to learn & I hope she was just being a kid (haha) during her stupid phase. (Please, please, please let it be a phase!! )

This weekend (I had a 3.5 day long one woohoo!) I got 4 huge bags of leaves & two free strawbales (church decorations) and fluffed up everyone's bedding. Tied down the tarp over the bunnies cages for a better windbreak. Stapled cardboard to the walls of chicken coop to break the wind coming through the gaps (we had 40MPH winds all weekend long), made deer jerky, couple dozen jars of turkey broth, blackberry beer (see the homemade soda thread) blackberry leather and operated on my beastie's ingrown toenail. ick, not all at the same time

Oh, and I priced out a concrete slab for my rocket room for next spring. I wish we'd had the money earlier this year so we could use it this winter but better later than never. A friend's dad pours concrete and he quoted me $850 for the forms, remesh, vapor barrier & concrete. I can't do it for that cheap even buying the concrete straight from the plant.

We'll be adding a 10'x12'ground level room where we'll use all the free brick & concrete bits to make a rocket stove. DH & I came up with the design that includes cob steps a few feet from the stove and a bench around 3 sides of the room. I had to modify my original design a bit to allow for paranoid DH's desire to see through the window who was knocking on the front door
Knowing us, I'll probably edit the design several more times before we actually build it. But I'm so excited!!